Bexar County seeks to find homeless teens, an elusive population

By Jeremy T. Gerlach :
February 4, 2014

When asked to describe the homeless population, you may think about waves of grizzled, older men, out-of-work veterans down on their luck or perhaps the mentally ill, wandering the streets.

But what about abandoned or runaway kids?

According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, there were about 340,000 homeless children in Texas in 2009. Here in San Antonio, officials are trying to identify not only how many of those kids are on our streets, but how many are “unaccompanied” — without parents or other guardians.

“This is a population that flies under the radar,” said Elizabeth Lutz, director of the Health Collaborative, a coalition of Bexar County's major healthcare organizations. “Homeless, unaccompanied youth are a demographic that hasn't been yet been identified because … most of them have run away or are trying to go undetected.”

Rachel Cavazos, Bexar County Housing Authority representative, said her department conducts point-in-time, census-style community surveys to determine the local homeless population, as mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 2013 was the first year they attempted to put a number on the unaccompanied, homeless youth population, which includes kids up to age 18.

“Last year we found just 10 in San Antonio that responded to our survey,” she said, cautioning that this subset was a particularly elusive group to find. “This year (in 2014), we've found substantially more.”

Trinity University is currently compiling this years surveys, which were conducted Jan. 28. Data will be released April 29, according to housing authority officials.

“Of young, unaccompanied women (nationally), about 50 percent are pregnant teens … many of whom who have been kicked out because of their pregnancy,” Realini explained. “That's compared to 33 percent of female youth in homeless shelters (who are pregnant).”

Realini added that many of these girls have been sexually abused and participate in what she termed as “survival sex” — exchanging sex for food, shelter, drugs or even life itself.

While no one contacted for this story was able to offer definitive numbers, Lutz said that the South Side of San Antonio — including downtown — probably experiences a higher concentration of these kids than other parts of Bexar County.

Diane Talbert is a spokeswoman for Church under the Bridge, a church located at 724 Chestnut Street, just east of U.S. 281 and north of Healy Murphy Park. The church aims its efforts at the homeless and can be reached at 859-4735.

“These kids, they usually congregate outside the malls and shopping areas, like the River Center (Mall) or the Riverwalk downtown,” she noted. “They're there (downtown) because that's where all the services are, but you won't see them walking in to a hospital or seeking too much (help) … because they don't know — when they sign their name or give out their information — if they're going right back into foster care or to an abusive guardian.”

While the size of the unaccompanied population in San Antonio is largely unknown, Talbert says groups like hers can offer help without “asking too many questions.”

“We just want all of them to come in and be loved,” Talbert said. “We want them to know, you don't have to run. You don't have to do it all on your own.”